ICANN ICANN Email List Archives

[gtld-council]


<<< Chronological Index >>>    <<< Thread Index >>>

Re: [gtld-council] NCUC proposals to amend gnso recommendations on new gtld policy

  • To: robin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Subject: Re: [gtld-council] NCUC proposals to amend gnso recommendations on new gtld policy
  • From: Liz Williams <liz.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 01:15:20 +0200

Hi Robin

Thanks for this ongoing debate. Do you have any other examples that would help the discussion outside the US? Not all countries have any First Amendment-like rights and it would be useful to have this discussion on a broader basis.

Liz


.....................................................

Liz Williams
Senior Policy Counselor
ICANN - Brussels
+32 2 234 7874 tel
+32 2 234 7848 fax
+32 497 07 4243 mob




On 05 Jun 2007, at 01:08, Robin Gross wrote:

Hi Mike,

Well US courts have consistently disagreed with your view and ruled that there are numerous lawful uses of a trademark in a domain name by someone other than a trademark holder. Trademark law has never granted a monopoly on language. It only regulates specific uses of words or symbols, and only commercial uses. Non-commercial expression is not regulated by trademark rules under the law.

One of the most cited US legal precedents to examine the boundary of free expression rights and trademark rights is Taubman v. Webfeats 319 F.3d 770 (6th Circuit 2003), an early "cyber-gripe case". The court explained, "we will first explain the interrelation between the First Amendment and the Lanham Act. ... The Lanham Act is constitutional because it only regulates commercial speech, which is entitled to reduced protections under the First Amendment." In Taubman the appellate court held that many expressions of a mark were not a 'trademark use' and not likely to cause confusion and therefore "outside the jurisdiction of the Lanham Act and necessarily protected by the First Amendment." The 6th Circuit spoke directly to our issue, "The rooftops of our past have evolved into the Internet domain names of our present. We find that the domain name is a type of public expression, no different in scope than a billboard or a pulpit, and [defendant] has a First Amendment right to express his opinion about [plaintiff], as long as his speech is not commercially misleading, the Lanham Act cannot be summoned to prevent it." Taubman explicitly held there First Amendment protection to use a trademark in a domain name to criticize a business. See:
 http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=03a0043p.06

Another US circuit, the 9th, has also set similar precedent in Bosley Med. Inst. v. Kremer, 403 F.3d 672 (9th Cir. 2005) over a non-commercial gripe-site using a trademark in its domain name. Again the court agreed that the non-commercial expression of opinion was not a "trademark use" subject to regulation by the mark holder. "[Defendant] is not [plaintiff's] competitor; he is their critic. His use of [plaintiff's] mark is not in connection with a sale of goods or service - it is in connection with the expression of his opinion about [plaintiff's] goods and services. [Plaintiff] cannot use the Lanham Act either as a shield from ... criticism, or as a sword to shut [defendant] up."
See:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/newopinions.nsf/ 3B0C93358B88F28D88256FD90056994B/$file/0455962.pdf?openelement

The US 2nd Circuit has also provided strong protection for noncommercial speech and recognized that words and phrases are used in many different ways in a digital environment, to serve differing goals, and that not all of these uses are controlled by trademark law. In 1-800 Contacts v. WhenU.com 414 F3d 400 (2d Cir. 2005), the 2nd Circuit ruled that the vast majority of such uses were outside the scope of trademark law and only those specific uses visually associated with the sale of goods/services could be regulated by trademark. See:
www.eff.org/legal/cases/1800*contacts*_v_whenu/decision.pdf
So the US law is clear in permitting numerous non-commercial uses of a trademark in a domain name, to discuss, criticize, compare, provide general information about a company or product. Freedom of expression is a legally recognized value that trademark rights do not supersede. The current gnso draft recommendations diverge significantly from the law on this point.

Robin

Mike Rodenbaugh wrote:

I disagree with the NCUC's suggested change to Reco #3. There are ample numbers of 2d and higher lever domains that can be used for freedom of expression, with exponentially more to come. NCUC seems to suggest that
some prospective TLD operator would want to run an entire TLD full of
gripe sites as to one trademark. Such a business would not be protected under the guise of 'freedom of expression' under any nation's law that I
am aware of.
The current Reco is tied to a core ICANN value of protecting security
and stability.  If a TLD corresponding to a well-known trademark were
awarded to any entity other than the trademark owner, it is highly
likely that many users would be confused and placed at higher risk of
crime through activity at that TLD.  This is the same security and
stability concern that underlies the UDRP, as to 2d level and higher
domains.


Mike Rodenbaugh

Sr. Legal Director

Yahoo! Inc.


NOTICE:  This communication is confidential and may be protected by
attorney-client and/or work product privilege.  If you are not the
intended recipient, please notify me by reply, and delete this
communication and any attachments.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gtld-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-gtld-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Robin Gross
Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 10:23 AM
To: gtld-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gtld-council] NCUC proposals to amend gnso recommendations on
new gtld policy

NCUC has developed 5 new proposals to amend the draft gnso recommendations on new gtld policy. These proposals are meant to give some recognition to freedom of expression values in our recommendations. The proposals also address concerns about ICANN becoming enmeshed in national policy debates and would keep the Internet core neutral of such conflicts. The 5 proposals are not meant to be accepted only as a package, but should be considered individually also.

NCUC proposals to amend draft GNSO recommendations:
 http://www.ipjustice.org/ICANN/062007.html

I welcome an opportunity to discuss the amendments at greater length and

will try to answer any questions you may have on them.

Thank you for considering them.

Best,
Robin








<<< Chronological Index >>>    <<< Thread Index >>>

Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Cookies Policy